Medicine and bias

A prominent former Harvard researcher has admitted to cooking the books on his studies to prove his hypothesis that there's a direct correlation between obesity and sleep apnea.

Personally, I'm not against the scientific method. Like any tool, it must be used with awareness of its limitations. This story is an extreme example of the major flaw with the scientific method: observer bias. Researchers take many steps to try and weed out bias in their studies and findings (obviously falsifying your data is a whole other level!), but I feel it remains a flaw of even the most well crafted studies. Bias determines what questions are even asked in the first place, as well as how the results are interpreted.

Before I was an acupuncturist, I studied feminist and anti-oppression theory. One of the things I learned is that bias cannot be eliminated. Our perspective and who we are informs everything we do and the conclusions we come to. It's the nature of human existence. The best thing we can do is to know who we are, and where we are coming from, so that the limitations of our perspective do not overwhelm our judgments, or close off the possibilities of other truths.

In Chinese medicine, we learn to see people and their dis-eases in terms of patterns. Patterns of behaviour, patterns of imbalance, patterns of disfunction. Each symptom exists in concert with the whole, and together they create a picture of where the person is and how they are developing.

A key philosophy guiding the practioner of TCM is tong yi bing zhi, yi bing tong zhi: "Same disease, different treatments; different disease, same treatments." In other words, we break with the Western medical style of treating symptoms, rather than a whole person. Two people with sleep apnea, are two different people - how we help them return to health and balance with Chinese medicine will be very different.

The case of the Harvard researcher brings up a current contentious issue of bias in medicine and health: 'obesity' and its health impact. I practice "body-positive" medicine. I feel strongly that health is not something that can be measured and weighed. Simply looking at a person and making judgments about their health is fraught with peril. Humans come in many shapes and sizes, and appreciating and accepting that diversity is a strength of holistic medicine. Mental health and self-love are vital parts of a full, balanced life. Prescribing a certain body size as 'normal' or necessary for health is akin to prescribing certain heights, ages or races as optimal.

Jing shen bu jin, zhi yi bu zhi, bing nai bu yu. "If the psyche is not taken into account, and the mind not treated, disease cannot be cured." This is as true for those of us who heal, as for those of us healing.

Be well!
Kirsten